Salmon's presentation given at a half-day advisory seminar and networking session designed for Rackspace eCommerce clients and prospects, eCommerce software partners and web design partners.
1. The Route to Scalable eCommerce
A Framework for Scalable Web-facing
Retail Applications
Craig Harper-Ashton - Head of eCommerce
Neil Stewart - Commercial Director
Prepared: March 2009
2. Who are Salmon?
Diverse Interests and Practice Diverse Interests and Practice
Global SI, operations in London, New Interests in retail, finance, insurance
York, Beijing, Sydney and utilities
Successful track record over 19 years Focus on enterprise architecture , IT /
business change
c. 180 staff, c 100 in eCommerce team
Focus on business impact
£16.8M turnover
Application management and support
Privately owned, financially sound
- 25% of the business
Open, honest and responsive approach
Strong delivery-focused culture and
focus Innovative Risk Reward Models
Mission critical systems Fixed price
Managed risk
Broad and deep expertise in web based
applications and technologies Shared reward
Specialist skills in highly transactional
systems and solutions e.g. B2B and B2C
eCommerce, multi-channel integration,
insurance underwriting
Customer experience / design
3. End-to-end eCommerce Project Services
1 2 Customer Experience
Discovery
Design
Strategy and business case
Requirements (functional/non-
Customer journey mapping
functional), analysis/gap
Information architecture
analysis
Customer experience
Asset clarity framework
Design
Business process mapping
Application of Web 2.0
Package/component/tool
Usability
set selection
3
4
Solution
Ongoing Services
Implementation
Application support or
Architecture and design
complete managed service
Build/test/deploy/training
(hosting via third party)
Performance by design
Maintenance and enhancements
Data, systems, 3rd party
Monitoring and alerting
Solution Integration
Web marketing and SEO;
Implementation of
capacity planning; analytics etc
Industry best practices
Stress testing and performance tuning
7. Definitions
SaaS
An application owned, delivered and managed remotely
by one or more providers.
The provider delivers an application based on a single
set of common code and data definitions which are
consumed in a one-to-many model.
on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use
metrics.
8. Definitions
out-of-the-box
Items, functionalities, or features provided out of the
box are those that do not require any additional
installations, plug-ins, expansion packs, or products.
For tangible products, the phrase quot;out of the box“
promotes functions, e.g. “the out of box functionalities
provided in HP OpenView Service Centre”.
The connotation is of a system without
customisation, such that it is usable with a vanilla
software installation.
9. Definitions
Fully Bespoke
Refers to software designed and written for a single
company and/or task.
custom-made to the buyer's specification.
11. Benefits and Drawbacks
SaaS
Benefits For the Customer Drawbacks For the Customer
No direct control of the data
No client/server software installation or
maintenance Dependence on an outsider to run your
eCommerce business
Shorter deployment time
12 -24 month tie-in
Global availability
What next? „Prisoner‟
Service Level Agreement (SLA) adherence
Security
Constant, Smaller, Upgrades
One size fits all
Ease of traditional internal I.T. pains
Redistributable I.T. Budget
Predictable costs
Drawbacks For the Provider
One butt to kick
Monthly focus on customer satisfaction
Benefits For the Provider Harder development process
Compensation issues
Success can be a problem
Aggregate operating environment
Predictable revenue stream
Predictable growth
Focus on smaller upgrades instead of
monster patch rollouts
Sales becomes customer relationship
management
12. Benefits and Drawbacks
out-of-the-box
Benefits For the Customer Drawbacks For the Customer
Features of packages are designed to be
Quick to get up and running
useful for the greatest number of users and
Relatively low initial outlay
are developed according to the demands of
Design templates available the greatest number of customers. One size
WYSIWYG fits all
Superfluous features
Missing features
Benefits For the Provider Package drives business not visa-versa
Very costly to add new features
Search engine visibility often poor
Repeatability
Fixed Database structure
Predictabilility
„Best practice' not always adhered to
Economies-of-scale
Drawbacks For the Provider
High churn
Innovation at the pace of all
13. Benefits and Drawbacks
Enterprise bespoke
Benefits For the Customer Drawbacks For the Customer
Development often requires ROI and TCO
High flexibility / agility
assessment, and stakeholder support
High differentiation
Procurement procedures
Control over pace of innovation
Multiple internal stakeholders
Alignment to business processes , not visa-
Multiple partnerships / alliances
versa
Bespoke support
Direct relationship with development partner
in locale Longer initial development time
Typically lower training costs / knowledge Relatively high initial outlay
transfer compared to packaged software
Increased risk management
Drawbacks For the Provider
Mix and match / best of breed
Reuse is low as IP is retained by customer
Benefits For the Provider Risk Management
Highly innovative
High profile
High value
15. eCommerce conundrum
Higher
Higher
Complexity
Revenue
Solution
Lower
Lower
Lower Higher
Effort & Investment
over time
16. Why SAFE™?
Big Picture
Continued shift from eCommerce -> MC eCommerce -> Cross Channel retailing continues
1 unabated
2 Endemic eCommerce platform failure as eCommerce operations mature
1st and 2nd generation sites being replaced
Increasing demand for strategic eCommerce solutions that;
3 Support low cost of entry & have rich functionality & features
An underlying technology platform that delivers scalability & flexibility
Support innovation without technical or contractual limitations
End of one-size/vendor fits all approach, with growing need for seamless integration of data,
4 systems and solutions as an enabler of rapid eCommerce Differentiation
e.g. Check and Reserve, Reserve and Collect, Advantage Card
Opportunity to ‘package’ our 10+ years eCommerce experience –
enabling customers to leverage this IP in the form of one
solution, available in 3 commercial models with;
> A proven eCommerce project delivery methodology
> Reusable components that align with worldwide eCommerce best practices
> Fully tested and pre-configured elements and modules
> Production-ready solution combining software and services
17. SAFE™
Technical Components Web Properties and Channels
Sales Centre
Trial
Robust underlying platform
Brand #1
IBM WebSphere Commerce
International
Site
Pre integrated components
Pricing, Orders, Product, Scheduled Jobs
Managed hosting Kiosk
100% uptime with Rackspace
Core web
Mobile, Per
property
vasive
SAFE™ features
POS
UI Design
3 CSS compliant designs
Brand
Extensions
(Kids, luxury,
Deployment
Seasonal)
UAT >> Staging >> Production
B2B Test Market
Pre-integrated options
xn
Omniture, Coremetrics, Magic Zoom, Market Advisor,
Google Maps
19. SAFE™
Commercial Approach
Higher
Higher
Complexity
Revenue
Solution
A. SaaS Sold “as-Is”, as a service on
a visitor or revenue basis
p/m/y, single instance,
Lower
Lower
managed service
Lower Higher
Effort & Investment
over time
20. SAFE™
Commercial Approach
Higher
Higher
Complexity
Revenue
Solution
B. out-of-the-box
Sold “as-Is”
A. SaaS Sold “as-Is”, as a service on
a visitor or revenue basis
p/m/y, Single instance,
Lower
Lower
managed service
Lower Higher
Effort & Investment
over time
21. SAFE™
Commercial Approach
Higher
Higher
C. Enterprise
Bespoke
Dedicated
Complexity
Revenue
infrastructure,
Solution
single instance,
significant
B. out-of-the-box customisation
Sold “as-Is”
A. SaaS Sold “as-Is”, as a service on
a visitor or revenue basis
p/m/y, Single instance,
Lower
Lower
managed service
Lower Higher
Effort & Investment
over time
22. www.halfords.com
250% Sales Growth
> 60% Visitors Growth
Live in < 90 Days
We are committed to providing a leading shopping
experience and Salmon has been instrumental in
this process. We have worked with Salmon to
evolve Halfords.com in accordance with our
customers‟ shopping habits and to ensure that our
online offering is reflective of our customers‟
expectations. This investment has centred on
improving search, convenience, service; and
cross-channel optimisation
Jan 2009
Head of Service and Channel Development
23. Salmon Ltd
64 Clarendon Road
Watford
Hertfordshire
WD17 1DA
Tel: +44 (0) 1923 320 000
Fax: +44 (0) 1923 320 023
info@salmon.com
Unique Approach • Unique Solutions
Salmon LLC Salmon China Limited
Salmon Asia Pacific
220 Old Country Road 605 Zhongchen Building
(Pty Limited)
Mineola Lize Zhongerlu #1
Level 1, 299 Elizabeth Street
NY 11501-4271 Wangjing Science & Technology Park
Sydney NSW
United States of America Chaoyang District
Australia
Beijing 100102
2000
Tel: 001 516 742 7888 China
Fax: 001 516 742 9169 Tel: +61 (0)2 8251 0044
Tel: +86 (0) 10 6439 8779
Fax: +61 (0)2 8251 0097
Fax: +86 (0) 10 6439 8665